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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

This week was my nephews 1st birthday and it was such a joy to be able to celebrate him.My brother and his wife threw a wonderful party. It was animal themed and they made an unbelievable cake from scratch, complete with fondant painted animals from Eric Carle books.Now that is impressive!!!

So this week I wanted to give a flash back to my beautiful, wonderful and kind sister-in-law's baby shower from a little over a year ago.

My two beautiful sisters!!

They didn't find out the sex so I went with a very gender neutral gray and yellow nesting theme. Bird cages, ceramic birds, love birds, painted birds, you name it I think we had it :)

Invitations

A few of the added touches for this shower included pictures of the father and mother placed around the house.

An advice and well wishes station where guests were able to share their best, most important and often times entertaining parenting advice.

This is such an easy thing to incorporate for any shower, baby or bridal.All you need is a vase, branches and some form of notecard that you hole punch and tie a ribbon through. Easy right? I also created a number of easy buntings, banners, and poms to use as decoration.

The shower was at 11:00 so we did a brunch.I love a great brunch for a shower! I feel like it is one of the easiest meals to prep ahead of time and with the help of my wonderful sister I barely had to lift a finger :) She and her daughter Hailey also made these beautiful nest treats which were a huge hit.

We had a wonderful cake and cupcakes for dessert and thank you cookies with a piped bird for guests as they departed.

My sister-in-law Kara was absolutely glowing the whole time and she was blessed with so many beautiful gifts!

Coming from all of this celebration was the arrival of my beautiful nephew Porter a few weeks later!!Here he is on the first day I met him and again last weekend at his birthday :)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

This has been a wonderful week! I was given the opportunity to attend a leadership conference for woman and the conference took place in Orlando, FL!! Anyone who has ever lived or currently lives in MN knows that a getaway to somewhere warm can be so refreshing. If I could capture the fun, excitement and inspiration I gathered at the conference in a picture, I would, but since I can't I will share another pretty moment of the week. It involved an hour before my plane left, sunshine and a pool!!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in our house for a number of reasons. I LOVE how it is fresh, clean, and has a nice mix of modern and traditional touches and it is always a gathering place for parities and family dinners. It is truly the heart of our home!

Before

After

As you can see we had a lot of work to do, not only was it outdated, but it was also appliance less, except for the stove which came in handy for my job, so I am grateful for that!

We began the process by having our amazingly talented trim carpenter, Sean Jones, add a box above the sink,crown molding to the existing cabinets and additional legs to the island to extend it out. Isn't his work amazing?? You'll see much more of his expertise throughout our house!

Next, we had the cabinets professionally sprayed. We painted all of the trim in our house ourselves, but for the cabinets we thought we should leave it to the professionals and for that I am thankful. They have held up so well. We used Benjamin Moore, White Dove Satin Impervo for all of our trim. This is an oil based paint which can be a little harder to work with but puts a really nice hard coating to the trim and cabinets that can be easily washed.

We chose a black granite, I am not sure of the exact name, but it is a pretty solid black. I knew I wanted to have a somewhat busier backsplash so I felt like keeping a solid granite would ground the space.

The last large item was the back splash. We laid this ourselves with the help of my very talented mother-in-law, who knows her way around a tile saw. Thanks Barbie!

When I began the hunt for this I thought I would never find what I was looking for on my budget. The look I was going for was a very Candice Olson inspired kitchen. Guess what, after a lot of online shopping and samples ordered I found this wonderful multi stone and glass backsplash. It was a bit of a splurge, but 4 years later I still think it's worth it!

So you don't have to scroll back through below is a before and after!

Before

After

Anyone else re-doing their kitchen or have any big spring projects they are working on?

Monday, April 8, 2013

When the hubby and I started talking about buying a foreclosure and fixing it up, I am not quite sure I knew what I was getting myself into. In January of 2009 we purchased an amazing two story foreclosure. There was just one small problem, it had the most outdated style I had ever seen. By outdated I mean it was decorated when it was built in 1993 and never touched again. We began the process immediately and gutted the house and replaced EVERYTHING.

Our first night working on the house!

Along the way we have learned so much about home renovation, how to DIY everything and how much I LOVE to decorate. Our house is an ever evolving project and one we are so proud of. Luckily, we took some before pictures and along the way I will share where we are in the progress of the house. It took approx. 5 months (with the help of our truly amazing families!) to do the majority of the renovations and we continue to update the house on a week to week basis. Renovating a house can be tiring at times, but mostly it is a ton of fun and a great relationship builder. I mean when else do you and your hubby stay up until 3 in the in the morning covered in paint and dancing to Ray Lamontagne?? Such pretty memories!!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Details are something I truly love! When it came to my Grandma's 90th I went all out. She is someone who takes time to look at every last thing and I wanted to ensure there was nothing forgotten.

My favorite thing about this party were the customized, "these are a few of my favorite things" cards that we sent to family and friends.

We included a postmarked return envelope so it would be easy for people to fill out. We simply asked people to include their favorite thing or memory about Lucille and return it to us. The responses were so touching and made for beautiful garland that we strung around the house using ribbon and clothespins.

I had two tables set, the dining room table for Grandma and her grandchildren,

and a table for Great Grandchildren and their Grandparents.

I used vintage tea cups with roses and floral tags from Michaels to create place cards and kept my Grandmas favorite colors of powder blue and light pink throughout the party. Printables were created for throughout the house that included Grandma's favorite things and memories.

My cousin Liz made a beautiful 90 banner out of printed black and white photos and it turned out to be a great focal point.

And we definitely can't leave out the beautiful cake by "the cake lady" Gail's cakes of Minneapolis. The sugar flower was so beautiful on this cake and it tastes as good as it looks!!

To end with my favorite quote of the day, " Ohh what a difference a day makes." Happy 90th to the prettiest woman I know!! I love you so much and I am so proud to be your Grandaughter!